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kindness

Commuters on a Winnipeg bus Tuesday morning became unexpected witnesses to an incredible act of kindness.

According to CBC News, the bus driver pulled over on a corner and began chatting with a homeless man on the street. After a couple of minutes, he removed his shoes and gave them to the barefoot young man. The driver then got back on the bus in his socks and carried on with his route.

Until just 12 years ago, the common view among scientists was that humans were “nasty” at the core but had developed a veneer of morality — albeit a thin one, de Waal told scientists and journalists from some 50 countries.

But human children — and most higher animals — are “moral” in a scientific sense, because they need to cooperate with each other to reproduce and pass on their genes, he said.

It all started two years ago at Corner Perk, a small, locally owned coffee shop, when a customer paid her bill and left $100 extra, saying she wanted to pay for everyone who ordered after her. The staff fulfilled her request, and the woman has returned to leave other large donations every few months. Now, more customers have been leaving money to pay for others’ food. Some people don’t even buy anything when they come in; they just stop to donate and head right back out.

In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.

The free rat, often hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive – which is a lot to expect of a rat.

Launched in 2008, IndieGoGo.com enables its users to share their causes and solicit donations from complete strangers. The more than 40,000 campaigns its helped launch have ranged in scope, but the health stories typically center on the same theme. The patients face crippling conditions and can’t afford the care they need.

“I think health care issues and personal health campaigns make sense, because our health care system can be very expensive sometimes,” IndieGoGo founder Slava Rubin told The New York Times. “Sometimes people just need to try a different direction to get funded what they need to get funded.”

The idea for Panera Bread’s first nonprofit cafe was to open an eatery where customers paid what they could afford. A month into the honor system experiment, the restaurant is exceeding expectations and paving the way for more locations.

Quote of the Moment

Civilization may be unraveling in a lot of areas; some of its structures may be collapsing; but it is also in the midst of a tremendous upheaval of creativity -- a flood of innovation and genius and love pouring out of millions upon millions of people -- a Great Awakening that is far louder and stronger and more interesting than the sleepy resignation and corrosive maliciousness and ignominious decline that the media prefers to focus on.